The (Cost) Effectiveness of Online Tutoring in France
In France, students’ social background strongly influences their school trajectories. Achievement gaps emerge early and tend to widen over time, making France one of the OECD countries with the largest socio-economic disparities in test performance.
Tutoring has been shown to be one of the most promising approaches to improve learning outcomes and thus learning gaps. The French Ministry of Education has recognised the potential of tutoring as a tool to fight educational inequalities, and supports it as part of the national initiative “1 jeune 1 mentor” (English: “1 young person, 1 mentor”), which aims to give every young person between 5 and 30 years old access to individual support, for instance through tutoring and mentoring.
While tutoring has proven to be effective at improving students’ learning, it is often costly and difficult to scale, especially in remote and underserved communities. Online tutoring, therefore, offers a promising pathway: it can reach more students, at a potentially lower cost, while still providing personalised support. Yet, there is much less evidence on the effectiveness of online tutoring. Against this background, this project aims to answer the following research question: does online tutoring improve students’ academic and non-academic outcomes, and is it cost-effective?
To answer this question, researchers from J-PAL and EVAL-LAB partnered with the French NGO ZUPdeCO to measure the impact of its online tutoring programme HomeClasse. This project is supported by the French Ministry of Education, providing relevant administrative data, local education authorities (académies), which supported the recruitment of partner schools, and INJEP (the National Institute for Youth and Popular Education), which supported the first year of the evaluation (a.y. 2024-2025).
The HomeClasse Program
Participating students benefit from one hour of online tutoring per week, focused on strengthening academic skills in scientific or humanities subjects. Sessions are conducted one-to-one and tailored to each student’s needs. In addition, students can access educational resources approved by the French Ministry of Education (MyMaxicours platform), which offers exercises, videos, and quizzes to reinforce learning. All sessions take place from home, on a secure digital platform, and are free of charge for families.
Tutors are volunteers, mainly university students and working professionals, who receive training before being matched with a student. Tutors serve not only as academic support but also as role models, helping students gain confidence, organise their work and study methods, and reflect on their educational paths.
Target group and outcomes of interest
This study focuses on students enrolled in the last year of middle school (ninth-grade students), a pivotal year marked by the national end-of-middle-school examination and critical track choices. In particular, students and their families have to choose between vocational and general tracks, a choice that has long-lasting effects on their labour market trajectories.
We test whether HomeClasse alters these choices, as well as students' academic outcomes and socio-emotional skills, such as motivation, willingness to learn and educational aspirations.
The evaluation will also collect detailed cost data to assess effectiveness per euro spent, with the goal of guiding budget considerations in the context of the “1 jeune, 1 mentor” initiative.